Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Post # 31

 England play Sweden tonight and I hope they do well and go on to win the match and the group. But I felt I had to comment about the picture that greeted me on the back of this mornings paper. Am I being a bit touchy in saying that its in dubious taste?
In case you dont recognise him, its Wayne Rooney, arguebly our most high profile player, hands acimbo, with what looks like to me as a England flag daubed across his body in what looks alarmingly like blood.
Fab advertising ofcourse as its definately grabbed the attention. It just doesnt sit well with me though, it seems to have a violent undercurrent to it that makes me uncomfortable.
Would be interested in any comments.......

4 comments:

Mick & Cathy said...

Yes I see your point about the violent undercurrent.

I think England have come a long way of ridding ouselves of the violent reputation of our fans.

I was only reading the other day how the German Police thought the English supporters were the best behaved so far (despite having the biggest travelling support).

The last thing we should be doing is promoting violence as the worlds press lie in wait for the first incidents.

As a supporter of Football (England & Leeds) for well over three decades I have seen many violent situations at matches and I think as a nation we have come a long way.

I have considered doing a blog article about this subject from what I saw particularly in the late 70's early 80's.

airliebird58 said...

I've been lucky really, and haven't seen a lot of bother at all. I support teams (Leeds Utd and Hull FC)that true or not, have bad reputations. Football in general and Hull FC have taken great strides in cleaning up its act. Unfortunately the sh*t sticks for a very long time doesnt it?
Things like the Rooney pic just doesnt do us any good.
I think the lad was badly advised you know.

goatman said...

I hate to appear befused (I've just returned from the dark side of the moon) but does Iraq have a team in the competition? And if not, why not?
Seems as if a healthy competition rather than a deadly one would be to our collective advantage.
Peace

airliebird58 said...

Goatman:
I think Iraq have played in the tournament in the past. But what you have to remember are these are the World Cup 'finals'. It takes practically all the 4 years between finals to hold the qualifying games. Each region is sorted out into groups and it goes on from there, the winners of the groups making it to the finals which we are seeing now. For instance Iran, and Saudi Arabia qualified for the finals this year from the Middle Eastern area.